1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to processor blade enclosures and more particularly relates to a RAID storage subsystem in a processor blade enclosure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typical servers, switches, hard disk drives, and related equipment have traditionally been rack mounted for convenience and conservation of space. Rack mounted equipment has the disadvantage of being connected with cables. Cables are a reliability problem because they can be bumped or loosen over time and be inadvertently disconnected. Rack mounted equipment is also large and bulky with a lot of wasted space between and around rack mounted equipment.
As a solution, processor blades have been developed to provide a server in a compact package. Processor blades can be integrated into a processor blade enclosure such as a BladeCenter® from International Business Machines (“IBM®”) or an HP BladeSystem® from the Hewlett-Packard Company®. Processor blade enclosures provide a compact structure to house processor blades. Typical processor blade enclosures include space for several processor blades. Processor blade enclosures also typically include Ethernet switches, fiber channel switches, management modules, communication fabric, power supplies, and batteries. Processor blade enclosures may also include expanders such as a serial attached SCSI (“SAS”) expander. (SCSI is an acronym for small computer system interface.) Expanders allow connection to storage devices in a star configuration. Storage devices can also be connected in a daisy chain configuration.
Processor blade enclosures typically do not include storage devices other than small hard disk drives configured to store code necessary for booting up the processor blade. Processor blades typically contain two small form factor drives that are very limited in size and usefulness. A processor blade enclosure with twelve processor blades may include 24 of hard disk drives in the processor blades but typically would not use the hard disk drives for general data storage. The hard disk drives also take up valuable space in the processor blades.
For a small office solution, space is at a premium and a typical processor blade enclosure would have to be accompanied by storage devices in a rack or other mounting. This arrangement is inconvenient because of the space required and also because the system has reliability issues due to the required cabling from hard disk drives to a processor blade enclosure. Reliability may be increased using a redundant array of inexpensive disks (“RAID”). Typically the RAID storage subsystem is accomplished outside of the processor blade enclosure.
From the foregoing discussion, it should be apparent that a need exists for an apparatus, system, and method to provide a RAID storage subsystem within a processor blade enclosure. Beneficially, such an apparatus, system, and method would provide a dense data storage solution within a processor blade enclosure that is reliable and efficient.